Cloaked

has a real sweet ending ( )

3Q,4P. Cloaked by Alex Flinn takes seven fairy tales, some well-known and some not, and weaves them into a present day tale that begins in an upscale Miami hotel when a princess enlists the help of a teenage cobbler. Even though the book is supposed to be a mystery adventure (of sorts), it is a fairly obvious read and it is easy to get irritated when the main character, Johnny, doesn’t pick up on the clues. That being said, Cloaked has merit; it is a quick read, enjoyable, and casually flips gender expectations. I think teenage readers would enjoy the story, even if it doesn’t leave them biting their nails. ( )

A few months ago, I discovered Alex Flinn. Apparently, she's written a bunch of books, but I had never heard of her for whatever reason. I read A Kiss in Time a few months ago and found it charming, so I grabbed Cloaked off the shelf at the library while wandering amidst a sea of YA paranormal romance.

Cloaked is the story of Johnny Marco, a sixteen year-old kid who puts in sixteen hour days at his mom's shoe repair shop at a swanky hotel in Florida. Mom works two jobs to stay poor while Johnny upsells wealthy businessmen who have Shoe Emergencies. The height of Johnny's social excitement is digging up new shoe-related quotes with his best friend, Meg, whose family owns a bakery across the street. Then one day, a princess comes to town and a few weeks later, stumbles in drunk with a broken shoe and a request: please find my brother, who has been turned into a frog, and I'll pay you megabucks and marry you.

So Johnny's off on an adventure through a couple of Grimm's minor fairy tales, armed with special earbuds that let him hear animals, a sense of honor, and a magic cloak powered by wishes. Through it all, he wonders if he can marry a princess for her cash. Many madcap shenanigans later, he gets a different happy ending than he anticipated, and one that's much more satisfactory from a reader's standpoint.

Here's the thing I really love about Alex Flinn's books so far: her protagonists have life goals. They tend to have a sense of purpose and a very specific desire to do something outside the mainstream. In A Kiss in Time, the protagonist wanted very much to be a landscape architect. In Cloaked, Johnny designed shoes. He spent a good portion of the novel wondering how he could convince Princess Victoriana to be a spokesperson for his shoes. I love YA novels in which the heroes have an aspiration, bonus points if it's more specific than to read a lot of Jane Austen and date a special snowflake.

I also love that these goals are not typical "boy" goals, centered around making tons of money and defeating something or someone in the process. The audience for Flinn's books is going to be largely female, and I can't help but think that it's good for them to see a male character headed toward an artsy profession which may challenge their gender conception. Girls can be real estate sharks and guys can be designers. It's refreshing to see.

Basically, I sat down and read this book in one sitting. It was fun, and I'd recommend it for sure. ( )

Great take on several different lesser known fairy tales. I loved how Flinn patched together several different stories to create this very unique and entertaining story. ( )

Review originally published on my blog: AWordsWorth.blogspot.com

When you pick up an Alex Flinn fairy tale, you know it's going to be fun and fast reading. Cloaked is no different, though nailing down that one particular fairy tale its retelling is a little impossible. You see, this is a combination of fairy tales, in one big, glorious, modern mix-up! The main theme is "The Frog Prince," but "The Elves and the Shoemaker" is also a key player, as are "The Twelve Swans." There are also sprinklings of so many other fairy tales too, I loved it!

It all starts when Johnny happens to meet the Princess of Aloria - Victoriana - somewhat by accident. (He's a humble teenager, repairing shoes for the wealthy patrons of a swanky hotel in Florida, not exactly the type of guy management wants hobnobbing with royalty). The Princess sees something she likes, and enlists Johnny's help in finding her brother - who has been turned into a frog by a wicked witch. After a bit of convincing, involving promises of marriage and wealth, not to mention experimenting with the magic traveling cloak, Johnny finds himself on an impossible quest. Wandering around the Keys, talking to animals-who-were-once-humans and passing (or failing) test after test, Johnny soon discovers that there is so much more to the world than what meets the scientific eye. And once his best friend Meg (who has plenty of secrets of her own) joins the quest, Johnny begins to take a closer look at all aspects of life - trying to see what lies beneath the surface.

As with any good fairy tale, there is a happy ending. Or several happy endings, since there are multiple fairy tales taking place simultaneously. The course of true love never did run smooth, and what's a good story without some unexpected twists and turns and "oh my gosh!"-moments right at the end? This was a fun, lighter read than Beastly, but I enjoyed the mish-mash of fairy tale goodness. ( )